Mia Perry Bowick broke down while recalling the moment her brother Matthew Perry first opened up to her about his addiction battles.
The younger sister of the late ‘Friends’ star, 54, appears prominently in the new Netflix documentary ‘The One About Matthew Perry,’ which premieres Tuesday at 12:00 a.m. PT. In the three-part series, she revisits a 2001 visit to Perry’s rehab facility that left her overwhelmed and sobbing in a closet.
“We were all sitting in a big group together and a lot of other people were there with their families,” she said in the documentary. “At one point, I think Matthew might have been talking and I started crying. I actually got up out of the room and into a closet of some kind and I was just hyperventilating and crying.”
Mia, who described her brother as “the most special person on the planet,” explained that the emotional weight of seeing her idolized older brother in that setting proved too much to bear. She recalled feeling “really overwhelmed” by the situation before making her emotional exit from the group session.
The documentary, which examines Perry’s acting career alongside his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse, also features the wrenching account of his funeral. Mia described the day as “wrenching and harrowing,” but shared a moment she felt her brother’s presence breaking through the grief.
“He showed up right behind my right shoulder and goes, ‘How f—– up is this?'” she said in the film. “And I started laughing so hard. I was like, ‘Oh my god — there he is!’ Making me laugh at the most horrible moment, and also incredibly inappropriate for me to start laughing, but I just started cracking up. And I was like, ‘Yeah man, this is pretty f—– up.'”
Perry was found deceased in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner determined his cause of death as the acute effects of ketamine combined with drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine.
Multiple individuals have faced legal consequences in connection with the actor’s death. Jasveen Sangha, Kenneth Iwamasa, Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Erik Fleming are all currently incarcerated after pleading guilty to charges related to supplying the drugs that killed Perry. Dr. Mark Chavez received eight months of home detention after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine.
The documentary arrives nearly two years after Perry’s death and features testimony from some of his closest friends and family members. Mia’s contributions span from the early days of his addiction through to her experience of mourning him, offering an intimate sibling perspective on a life that played out partly in public view.
‘The One About Matthew Perry’ releases on Netflix at 3:00 a.m. ET Tuesday.